Ministry of Women and Child Development
Measures adopted to Eradicate Malnutrition
The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is implementing several schemes/programmes of different Ministries/Departments through States/UTs to address various aspects related to nutrition. This Ministry is implementing POSHAN Abhiyaan, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Anganwadi Services and Scheme for Adolescent Girls under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme  as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition among children and women in the country.
Government has set up POSHAN Abhiyaan on 18.12.2017. The goals of POSHAN Abhiyaan are to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner with fixed targets as under:
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S. No.
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Objective
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Target
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1.
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Prevent and reduce Stunting in children

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@ 2% p.a.
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2.
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Prevent and reduce under-nutrition  in children 
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@ 2% p.a.
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3.
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Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among young Children
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@ 3% p.a.
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4.
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Reduce the prevalence of anaemia among Women and Adolescent Girls in the age group of 15-49 years.
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@ 3% p.a.
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5.
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Reduce Low Birth Weight .
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@ 2% p.a.
The Abhiyaan aims to reduce malnutrition in the country in a phased manner, through a lifecycle approach, by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. The Abhiyaan has mechanisms for timely service delivery and a robust monitoring as well as intervention infrastructure. The major activities undertaken under this Abhiyaan are ensuring convergence with various other programmes; Information Technology enabled Common Application Software for strengthening service delivery and interventions; Community Mobilization and Awareness Advocacy leading to Jan Andolan to educate the people on nutritional aspects; Capacity Building of Frontline Functionaries and incentivizing States/ UTs for achieving goals.
Further steps taken under the National Health Mission , a flagship programme of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to address malnutrition inter alia include promotion of appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding  practices, Anaemia Mukt Bharat, Iron and Folic Acid  supplementation, de-worming, promotion of iodized salt, Vitamin-A supplementation, Mission Indradhanush to ensure high coverage of vaccination in children, conducting intensified diarrhoea control fortnights to control childhood diarrhoea, management of sick severely malnourished children at Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers, monthly Village Health and Nutrition Days, Home Based Newborn Care  and Home Based Young Child Care  programmes and Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram. Under POSHAN Abhiyaan, a well-researched, designed and tested communication plan & IEC materials have been developed and intensive Mass Media Campaign is conducted through various mass media channels like radio, television and social media. Also, during the home visits conducted by AWWs, through the use of ICDS-Common Application Software , the beneficiaries are counselled on nutrition related issues like breastfeeding, complementary feeding, infant and young child care. ICDS-CAS has embedded videos related to Infant and Young Child care and nutrition for educating the beneficiaries.
Further, Food and Nutrition Board under this Ministry, through its regional field units, conducts training programmes on nutrition and nutrition education programmes on the importance of healthy balanced diets especially through the use of locally available foods. Mass awareness campaigns through the use of electronic and print media are also organized.
This information was given by the Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.